Josiah McElheny, Imaginary Modernism: Hilma af Klint and Blinky Palermo

Josiah McElheny, Imaginary Modernism: Hilma af Klint and Blinky Palermo

Lecture
Hutchinson Courtyard
Add to Calendar 2024-04-02 19:00:00 2024-04-02 19:00:00 Josiah McElheny, Imaginary Modernism: Hilma af Klint and Blinky Palermo Join us for a lecture from New York-based sculptor, performance artist, writer, and filmmaker Josiah McElheny who will trace the contours of “imaginary modernisms” through the work of modern painters Hilma af Klint (Swedish, 1862-1944) and Blinky Palermo (German, 1943-1977).  Josiah McElheny (b. 1966, Boston, MA) is a New York-based artist and sculptor, best known for his work combining glass with other materials. McElheny’s sculptures, paintings, installations, performances, and films engage with the history of ideas across wide-ranging fields of study—from literature to architecture, music theory, and astronomy—transforming this research into physical form. His works often combine glass or mirror with other materials, to emphasize the importance of the act of looking “as a subject in and of itself.” A skilled glassblower, McElheny frequently incorporates hand-blown and shaped glass within evocative assemblages, whose mode of presentation creates a sense of unsettled ideals, and a challenge to fixed definitions. Josiah McElheny has exhibited widely, including solo shows at the Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University, CA (2019); Moody Center for the Arts, Rice University, Houston, TX (2018); MAK Österreichisches Museum für angewandte Kunst, Vienna, Austria (2016); Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, OH (2013), and Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA (2012) to name a few. His work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA; Museum of Fine Art, Boston, MA; Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden; and Tate Modern, London, UK among others. Hutchinson Courtyard Department of Art History drupal@seastar.uchicago.edu America/Chicago public
Hilma af Klint in Stockholm, ca. 1910. Photo Credit: The Hilma af Klint Foundation, Stockholm

Join us for a lecture from New York-based sculptor, performance artist, writer, and filmmaker Josiah McElheny who will trace the contours of “imaginary modernisms” through the work of modern painters Hilma af Klint (Swedish, 1862-1944) and Blinky Palermo (German, 1943-1977). 

Josiah McElheny (b. 1966, Boston, MA) is a New York-based artist and sculptor, best known for his work combining glass with other materials. McElheny’s sculptures, paintings, installations, performances, and films engage with the history of ideas across wide-ranging fields of study—from literature to architecture, music theory, and astronomy—transforming this research into physical form. His works often combine glass or mirror with other materials, to emphasize the importance of the act of looking “as a subject in and of itself.” A skilled glassblower, McElheny frequently incorporates hand-blown and shaped glass within evocative assemblages, whose mode of presentation creates a sense of unsettled ideals, and a challenge to fixed definitions.

Josiah McElheny has exhibited widely, including solo shows at the Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University, CA (2019); Moody Center for the Arts, Rice University, Houston, TX (2018); MAK Österreichisches Museum für angewandte Kunst, Vienna, Austria (2016); Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, OH (2013), and Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA (2012) to name a few. His work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA; Museum of Fine Art, Boston, MA; Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden; and Tate Modern, London, UK among others.